If so. how long did you leave them on before removing them? My Dr. said to just let them come off on their own, but they are driving me crazy. Some of the ends have come off and left sticky on my belly that keeps sticking to my shirt. I have had the steri-strips for 5 days now. What do you think??

Hey Jennifer... I am getting banded tomorrow, but I know about steri strips...lol.. you do not want to remove them. The main thing is make sure the site is completely healed..no opening in the skin...it sounds like they are already in the process of falling off... They usually come off on thier own..10 days..You can trim the curled edges off..I wouldn't take them off because you risk seperating the newly healed skin..only if your doctor recomends..As far as the sticky stuff, once your site heals..you can use rubbing alcohol to remove it..but make sure you are healed...it would burn...lol. Hope this helps..

I am one week out and had my first follow-up today - My Steri-strips were all still on and they removed them - actually seemed surprised they were still on.

minpinmom, did you have staples at all?? I had staples for 1 week post op, then at my 1 week follow up they took the staples out and put the steri-strips on, apparently for another week. I am 2 weeks post op today and stil have steristrips. I think it has been long enough, don't you? These things are driving me crazy!

No, I didn't have staples, I have clear stitches - with the steri strips over them. I would think it would be long enough - maybe take one off of the smallest incision and see what it looks like. Or, just call your Dr.s office, the girls in the front can probably tell you for sure!

I had staples on a previous surgery I had a few years ago - I was scared to death that it was going to hurt when they took them out - but they didn't What a relief.

I had stitches, too. No staples here.

I took my stitches out due to redness and inflamation of the area. Used steri strips to keep the incision sites closed.

I didn't have staples or stitches at all...just the steri-strips which stayed on for about a week. (I think they might have used glue to keep the wound closed initially.) I'm 3 weeks post-op today, and my incisions are almost completely healed...I had 5 incisions total, 4 tiny ones and one larger one. There's just a little bit of scab left on the big one...I'm ready for them to be completely healed so I can start using some scar fading cream to help them go away as much as possible! :smile2:

I' ready to be able to put some cream on them, too. I've been washing them with dial soap, and they look great (no infection) they are just really dry and itchy now. How did you get the sticky goo off your skin from the steristrips? Someone mentioned alcohol - but NO WAY! That would burn, I still have a few small scabby spots, and 1 place where I put a bandaid to keep my bra from rubbing and the band aid pulled all my skin off with it.

The itchyness while the incisions are healing is brutal, so annoying! The sticky stuff left from the steri-strips wasn't too bad for me, I would just try to gently scrub around my incisions with some bar soap and a washcloth. What I hated was the leftover iodine that was coated all over my stomach and took like a week to fade away. I hated the way it looked, the way it smelled, and the way it felt! Yuck!

I had my staples out 10 days post-op. All of the little incisions are completely healed, except for the little holes the staples left, They are kind of red and inflamed, but getting better. The port incision (about 3 inches long) has steri strips over it. The Doctor told me to leave them alone and not pull them off. So far they aren't too bad. He didn't say how long they would stay on. I'm glad someone here knew. Thanks.